With Muscles Made of Zeal

There’s nothing more important in any endeavor than passion and the will to succeed regardless of the difficulties, so I’ve decided that instead of a post for the end of the A to Z challenge, I’ll create a little writer’s manifesto, a mantra, incantation, prayer, battle cry.

There has to be an end to self-doubt, halfhearted tries and endless excuses. If we doubt ourselves, we lose. If we don’t breathe life on the page and feed off the page, we wither. If we do not write, we’re nothing.

As writers we have enough adversity to face from other people and circumstances, we fight a hard enough battle even without kicking ourselves in the head when we’re on the ground. There is only so much we should take.

From now on, there will be no more wailing and procrastinating, no more beating about the bush and drowning in doubts and self-pity. There will be no more excuses and no more second-guesses. From now on there is only our word, and our word shapes the future. Now say it with me —

As I’ve grown older, my musical tastes have broadened, but I’ve always loved metal. As for tattoos, when I was sixteen I swore I’d have two full sleeves by the age of twenty. Unfortunately, my 27th birthday is this month and I still have virgin skin. Yeah, I don’t know what happened. 😛

If it works? Are you willing to carve WRITE OR DIE across the back of your right hand and dip it in sacred goat blood and swear an oath of secrecy about the true nature of your muse? That’s fine, you don’t really need that. We’ll just tap-dance on our shredded first drafts, is all. 😛

I got my first tat with 16 (to my parents’ delight), and this month my 29th birthday finds me with 4 of them, two of which are bigger than Yeti’s foot. And every inch was worth it. 😉

Thanks, Damo! Glad you liked it enough to have it replace the “stick my fingers in my ears and sing really loudly and pretend I don’t hear you bothering me with nonsense when I craft my work of genius” -method. Good luck!